Wednesday 20 February 2008

People are great!

People are great! I have been receiving loads of well wishing from people I din't really know, via my other blog on bet trading (http://bettrading100to100000.blogspot.com) and today I got a message from a friend who I used to work with a year ago. he said that the guys at the company I used to work at had heard about my condition (my wife had been sending round email updates of the story so far) and they had had a collection and bought me a Nintendo DS to keep me entertained whilst going through chemo etc. What a cool gesture. You guys rock! I was really touched. They popped round today and we had a good catch up and I took possession of my new toy. Yay! See, cancer is good for something!
Anyway, I woke up this morning, feeling pretty good again. Obviously, I don't feel like normal, but pretty good considering. I took my last dose of steroids, so tomorrow morning may be the test of energy levels moving forward until the next steroid pulse.
I've noticed some stinging from the lymph nodes on my neck, where the unwanted house guests are living (eviction time boys!), which I'm treating as a good sign. The nodes feel a bit softer, but that could be my imagination. The cough that had been bugging me so much is gone appart from a few light weight normal coughs occasionally, so that's pretty good.

As a brief aside, I have been taking a few supplements that I did some research on and discussed with my consultant, who gave it the okay. I don't know if these may be part of the reason for my current "easy ride" but I'll mention them anyway.
Basically, I'm taking coenzyme Q10's, with the intention of protecting my heart against some of the doxorubicin effects and it is also a powerful anti-oxidant and energy giver to normal cells.
I'm also taking a maintenance dose of Beta Glucan, with the hope that the macrophages it should be stirring up can go to work munching on those dying Lymphoma B-cells. I'm going to move the dose up when I get my next chemo session, as I'll then be getting Rituximab and I have read a fair amount about Beta Glucan enhancing the cancer killing effect of it. My consultant seems pretty happy with what I'm doing and has only mention a couple of supplements to avoid, so I'm happy.

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